Notes about our life.

40.

2012-02-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

October 2nd

39.

2012-02-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

September 25th

The morning and the sky was so beautiful that we ended up outside. Madeline posed for me so I could practice using my flash. I really wanted a picture of her and the pretty sky. Didn't happen with the flash, but we thought this one of the sky was really nice.

38.

2012-02-01T09:46:00.001-08:00

September 24th

Daddy was out of town so we ate dinner at the kids' table. French toast, bacon and bananas!

37.

2012-02-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

September 16th

Madeline's first face paint at Sea World in San Diego. She was so pretty and loved all of the attention she got from strangers.

36.

2012-02-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

September 4th

We went to Sunset Park to feed the ducks but all we found were a bunch of pigeons!!

35. WHaaaa! (First Day of School)

2011-10-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

August 30th

My big girl started kindergarten today and of course I was a nervous mess. She loved every minute of it though. Her teacher is Mrs. Berry and there are 22 kids in her class. She shares a table with 2 boys and a girl and is learning letters, sounds, and some words.

34. Candyland

2011-10-07T09:42:00.001-07:00

August 26th

Today they initiated their first ever kids-only game of Candyland. I was so proud that my kiddos were being so independent.

33. Oh Sammy

2011-10-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

August 20th

I was lucky enough to go visit my brand new baby cousin in Chicago this week. He's such a tiny little bundle.

32. Big Boy Bed

2011-10-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

August 13th

My little man looks so tiny in his new big boy bed. I can barely tell he's in there when I check on him at night. He picked blue Star Wars bedding out at Target. We had to put up a railing because he fell out a few times (I think it's the same railing that was on my bed when I was a little little).

31. Go-Carts

2011-10-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

August 2nd

Fun at the Mini Grand Prix. It was hot hot hot, as you can see by Madeline pink cheekies, but the kids didn't notice. Madeline and Ian had a REALLY fast car and Maison and I were in a put-put. They lapped us at least once. Max got to ride by himself and was in a fast car too.

Oh the pack-rattiness

2011-09-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Madeline can almost always remember who gave her what when it comes to gifts. Even things from years ago. Today as I was sorting her too small clothes from her closet she intervened, informing me that if we can remember who gave her something it has memories and that means we have to keep it FOREVER. She certainly didn't learn that from me, but that idea does run in my family. I see a very cluttered house in her future. That is one thing that my horrible memory is good for. I don't become attached to things and even if I have a hard time getting rid of something I forget about it soon after it's gone.

30. The Teenager

2011-07-31T18:47:00.001-07:00

July 30th

Ian turned 13 today. 13! At least he's not too grown up to make silly faces with his cousins (even if he was staring at his cell phone while he did it).

29. Little fish

2011-07-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

July 18th

Give the girl goggles and she swims.

28. Bubbles in the backyard

2011-07-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

July 11th

27. Independence Day

2011-07-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

July 4th

We started out the holiday weekend with some serious yard work. Lucky for us we had A LOT of help spreading the rock in our front and back yards. My grandpa, dad, mom, and the boys all helped us and we were able to get it all down and raked out in a few hours. We (not including me, or my mom, or the boys) started before 5am and we were done before 10.

On the 4th of July, my parents had a BBQ and we lit our nice, safe, legal fireworks in the front yard while the sky all around us was lit up with other people's giant, illegal ones.

26. Toes

2011-07-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

July 1st

We all had our toes painted. Maison was happy we had blue polish since it's a boy color.

25. Splits

2011-07-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

June 24th

Madeline's last day of Jazz/Hip Hop/Tumble class for the season. Her class was on Fridays at 4, which is apparently not a popular time since there were only 2 other girls in her class. On this day the other 2 didn't show up so she had herself a private lesson.

24. This is (not) candy

2011-07-26T18:38:00.001-07:00

June 19th

We disguised Thor's Father's Day present by putting it in a pasta box before we wrapped it, but Madeline wanted to throw him off even more by writing "This is candy" on it too. (It was a video game, of course.)

23. Slurpees and shopping

2011-07-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

June 10th

22. San Diego

2011-07-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

June 1st- 4th

21. Baseball

2011-07-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

May 27th

Madeline and I went with Grandma and Grandpa to eat ball game food and watch the fireworks at the Las Vegas 51's game. Maison and Thor stayed home since we were going to be out so late. Madeline fell and bonked her head. After security and the medics looked her over they gave her a game (or maybe practice?) ball to help her feel better.

20. Cowgirl

2011-07-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

May 20th

Madeline's dance recital costume this year is a cute cowgirl outfit and they're dancing to the song "Wild Wild West". We took this picture on our way to class on picture day.

19. Wow, I'm so far behind.

2011-07-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

May 10th

Madeline had her last soccer game this week. Grandma and Grandpa were there with Mia, just like they were for nearly every one of her games.

And as of this posting I am 11 weeks behind on my blog posting. What a LOSER!

18. Food chain

2011-05-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

May 3rd

What the kids learn from watching dinosaur documentaries. I prefer when they feed them the fruit and fried chicken from the play kitchen set.

17. Bed head bunny

2011-05-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

April 24th

Maison with his Easter stash. The kid's baskets are tiny from when they were babies, it'll be time for new ones next year. Madeline was an awesome egg hunter this year. The kids each got a movie, a couple toys and, of course, CANDY. After we did our thing, we were off to the GG's for a yummy brunch.

16. Getting ready for E.B.

2011-05-13T13:07:00.001-07:00

April 22nd

We did good. Only the orange was spilt. We tried something new this year and colored a few eggs with crayons while they were hot out of the pot. Very pretty, but took too much time and patience for the little ones.

15. Baker's helpers

2011-05-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

April 15th

I've been trying to make most of our bread at home these days, so I'm lucky to have a bread machine and so many helpers. Of course, I have to make the whole process harder than it needs to be. I decided that I don't like the size and shape of the bread machine loaves so I bought a pan to make regular sandwich bread sized loaves and I bake my dough in the oven. But the pan, of course, doesn't hold the standard amount of dough, so every recipe has to be tweaked. I finally have a usable recipe, but it took quite a few very heavy, very floury, very uneatable loaves to get here.

14. 11 years

2011-05-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

April 9th

Today is our 11th anniversary. We started the day at a soccer game. And ended it with a nice dinner out and a movie at home. No kids. Thanks mom!

13. Ditch diggers

2011-05-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

March 27th

DOWN WITH DIRT! We have started to landscape our backyard. The kids love the dirt, but it is way too dirty for me. For the record, it is now 6 weeks later and so far we've planted a tree, killed said tree, planted a new tree, and dug the trench for the sprinkler line. We move kinda slow...

12. Camera hog

2011-03-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

March 24th

Madeline had a nightime soccer game this week. 7:00 at night- that's like bedtime, seriously. And it was FREEZING outside. Maison was being such a ham. For the first time ever he was commanding the attention of my camera. Even striking silly little poses and asking to have his picture taken. Maybe I'll finally start getting more un-blurry pictures of the kid. Please don't mind his hacked up hairdo. I get what I pay for and it was free. By me. Hehe. At one point Thor said it looked like I cut around a bowl on his head that had slid off to one side. Haha.

11. Legos!

2011-03-25T22:33:00.000-07:00

March 16th

One of our most fun accomplishments this week was a Lego tower that reached from the coffee table to the ceiling. It took MANY tries and we laughed every time it fell.

10. Childhood toys

2011-03-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

March 12th

Madeline had her very first soccer game this week! She's number 6. It's so funny to watch these little girls play. And it's hard not to get really into it. All of the parents do. I tell myself NOT to yell to the girls in the field, but it's completely uncontrollable. "Get that ball! Take it from them! Kick it Kick it!" And once they do get it they kick it toward the wrong goal. Freakin' hilarious.

9. Express yourself

2011-03-25T22:12:00.001-07:00

February 27th

I can't help but love this picture of Max just home from dirtbiking, flying down the street on his little cousins blue and pink bike with handlebar tassels flying. Showing Madeline how it's done.

8. The view from here

2011-03-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

February 25th

My baby girl turned 5 this week!

She was set on having her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese until she learned she could have a pinata if we had the party at home. My girl loves her some CANDY, so she chose the pinata. That morning we picked Thor up at work for a quick breakfast, then headed over to Walmart to pick out her new big bike- she picked a blue one and is practicing to ride without training wheels.

7. Open your heart

2011-02-17T16:43:00.000-08:00

February 17th

We've opened our hearts (and our home) to DINOSAURS!

6. Words

2011-02-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

February 8th

Maison's clearest and most used words.

*Also, he's been completely daytime potty trained for about 2 weeks now. It took ~~bribing~~ rewarding him with cars and trains each time he went you-know-what for it to finally stick.

5. Muse

2011-02-06T21:41:00.001-08:00

February 6th

My muse, musing.

4. Soothing Repetition

2011-02-06T21:33:00.001-08:00

January 29th

It takes a lot of blankets to put dad to sleep.

Brainwashed

2011-01-26T23:12:00.000-08:00

I finally got brave enough to try the peanut test on Maison. The peanut test sounds irresponsible, but I'll justify it by the fact that I did tell the doctor (twice) that I was going to do it, and he didn't call social services on me or anything. Just told me to have Claritin on hand. So, I decided to give Maison some peanut butter to see if he's still allergic. He has never had a breathing reaction to it, more of a hive reaction, which is maybe why the doctor didn't seem too worried?

Anyways, I thought I'd make it fun and make PB-chocolate chip cookies with the kids. As soon as the peanut butter went into the dough Maison refused to touch it. Of course he LOVES cookie dough. Would. Not. Touch. It. Tried to get him to eat a cookie. Nope. He started crying when I gave him a chocolate chip with a little cookie on it, so I gave up.

Really, I didn't think I had brainwashed him so well. I would only remind him when I'd put a plate of PBJ sandwiches out when other kids were over. I'll have to think of a new plan now. A sneakier plan. Hmmmm...

3. Shades of Grey

2011-01-23T09:25:00.000-08:00

My photo only fits this weeks theme because I changed it to black and white. The sky was actually bright blue and the dirt was, of course, brown. It's been so nice outside that we met my parents for a walk along the railroad trail out along Lake Mead. Then met Susie and Rob for Mexican breakfast on Boulder Highway.

This week Maison had his first dentist appointment. He wouldn't let them look in his mouth. His "cleaning" consisted of him brushing his own teeth with the hygenist's polish stuff. The doctor did get him to open up for a few seconds so she could peek in quickly and say it all looks good.

Madeline is a great dental patient. They said her four top front teeth will all fall out at the same time. They're already loose. For now, I'm not allowing her to eat whole apples. With all these loose teeth I was getting paranoid that all her teeth were going to fall out and no new ones would ever grow back in! I'm a worry wart (eww what an ugly word)...

2. Song title

2011-01-15T15:58:00.001-08:00

Smile by Uncle Cracker

Maison, you make me smile...

Today, after Iphone-ing, DS-ing, playing in the backyard and playing with the train sets, and before going to dinner at GG's to see Aunt Susie, Thor got the kid's bikes out of the garage, pumped up the tires and they headed over to the park to ride. Maison was extra excited to ride in dad's truck.

I've been really noticing his scar on his lip lately. Almost like it's getting more noticable as he grows. He tipped over a folding lawn chair when he was barely walking and busted his lip. I can see the scar in this picture.

1. Around the house

2011-01-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

In an effort to get this poor neglected blog back on track I'm going to commit (I use commit loosely. More like try-to-commit. Or commit-until-I-stop-committing) to a 52 week project. A picture and post a week. At least. For some extra inspiration that I'm hoping will help me document more than my children and their beautiful faces, I'll be following a weekly theme that gets posted on a website I sometimes read.

This weeks theme is around the house. This is one of my favorite pots (I sort of have a thing for kitchenware). Since it's too big to fit in any cupboards in our itty bitty kitchen, it sits on our counter to hold some of our fruits and veges. The oranges are from my Aunt & Uncles orange tree in their back yard in Phoenix. I didn't know, until last year, that some of the best oranges come from Arizona.

Tooth.

2010-10-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

4. Seems too little to be losing teeth. She lost it and lost it at the same time. We thought maybe she ate it, but after a little freak out we decided it was just lost in the carpet. The Tooth Fairy did indeed find it and left payment and a nice tooth pillow for next time.

HOLY FREAK

2010-10-12T23:05:00.000-07:00

I'm so far behind on this ol' bloggity blog I don't even know where to begin. How about a quick summer recap: We did lots. Alrighty, moving on.

So, we moved. Into a tiny house. In a not-anywhere-as-nice-as-our-old-neighborhood neighborhood. The kids love it here. They were not affected one bit. They like their bedrooms and the all dirt backyard.

It's a nice little house. Very (VERY) cozy. We have only one TV to share instead of three. We have only one living room instead of two. We spend A LOT more time very close to each other. Thor spends A LOT more time watching Tinkerbell and Avatar (I know...bad parents, it is rated PG13!). My "office" is the kitchen table.

I miss our old neighborhood. I miss being able to leave my trunk open while I bring the groceries in and not have to worry someone will steal my stuff (I may be slightly paranoid... but, only slightly as I have already had my Ipod stolen).

The dusting and general messiness is horrendous. But this is TEMPORARY. We aren't sure how temporary, but we're shooting for May. We hope. But if it doesn't happen, we are perfectly fine right here. Seriously, people live in worse. I have to get over this spoiledness. Ughhh.

Enough spoiled-brattiness. Here's a picture of Madeline helping potty-train Maison:

At least I have cute kids to make my day better. :)

Little known fact

2010-09-10T08:06:00.001-07:00

Maison will only sleep on a pink pillowcase. It was all we had the first time he decided to want a pillow and now he cries if I try to replace it with anything else. I sure hope he grows out of that before high school.

1800 miles

2010-09-05T22:54:00.000-07:00

Rental motorhome: check
Two kids, dog and husband: check
Lots of cookies: check
DVD player: oops
Car sick meds: check
Iphones: check (thank god)

We left on Friday morning and headed toward the Colorado Rockies. Met my parents and the boys right outside of Cedar City. I think we made it all of the way to Grand Junction that first day. Dad tried to find us a scenic spot to camp, but settled on an Albertson's parking lot instead. Sophie did not understand that, yes, we really expected her to pee in that rock landscaping. And yes, she was going to have to do it while attached to the leash.

From there we went to Thor's parents and stayed the next night parked behind their restaurant. It's a lot like camping, right by the woods, but right by a nice restaurant with a nice flushing toilet too. We almost didn't want to go "rough it" at our campground campsite.

We stayed 3 nights up visiting Thor's parents and his Grandma. Roy and Barb treated us to an awesome BBQ (in the rain) up at their farm/house and lots of breakfasts at the restaurant. Anna looks great and we were able to go visit at her house for a bit one day too. Maison was his grumpier self having missed lots of naps. Ian and Max loved everything- the restaurant, the animals, the woods, and Roy and Barb. And Madeline was THRILLED to see Oma and Grandpa Roy. And their office/car doggy, Tara.

The second half of the trip, we hee-hawed back through Grand Mesa, Montrose, Ouray, and Silverton. I have never in my whole life seen mountains so beautiful, ever. If I don't think about wintertime I can move Ouray, and the vicinity, to #2 on my Wish to Live Someday list. (California coast will always be #1, of course.)

Then we broke off from my parents to get home a little quicker and went through Hell with a pretty sunset. I think it was Highway 160, Northern Arizona. There were lots of cars, but we couldn't, for the life of us, figure out where they were coming from or where they were going. We slept on the side of the road. Nastiness. Hope to never have to drive that again.

For more pictures of the wonderfulness that filled our vacation go here!

Ooooo Scaawy Zombieeesss!!!

2010-08-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

Ouch, that looks like it hurts! They obviously aren't worried about skin elasticity or saggy eyelids.

Monkey song

2010-07-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

ME:
Two little monkeys jumping on the bed
one fell off and bumped his head
mama called the doctor and the doctor said...

MADELINE:
No more monkeys swinging on the couch??

You saw her here first, Folks!

2010-06-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

Unless you already read my mom's blog, then you saw her here second.

recessed

2010-06-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

This is what happened: one minute we decided it might be time to start looking into selling our house, the next minute it was listed, and about 12 seconds later it was sold.

Oh well. At least we have our health, right?

Maison in nature

2010-06-11T21:44:00.001-07:00

Back when the weather was still nice, my mom and I took the kids up to Red Rock for a little hike. Turns out Maison isn't much into nature walks.

Walking on rocks was scary for him. The other kids had fun though. And we we made it to the little waterfall without getting rained on (the weather was kinda crazy that day).

Our Gremlin

2010-06-03T23:29:00.000-07:00

Getting my referral on

2010-05-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

So, I'm diggin' Swagbucks and want to pass it on in case anyone else wants to try it (plus it gets me more points, of course!).

I signed up and installed their search toolbar. There's no funny business AT ALL- no spam emails, no pop-ups, nothing. Then I use the toolbar to do my regular searches (facebook, google reader, bank, etc.). I just take the two seconds to type it in like a search instead of using my Favorites buttons.

I randomly get rewarded points here and there with my search results. And there's other ways to get a few points here and there on their website, blog and fb page.

I've earned $35 in amazon gift cards over the last 3 months or so. Not a huge amount of money or anything, but not bad for just doing my regular online searches. I do have Thor's computer signed up, so I get points from his searches too, but he's only earned a $5 card so far. He's not an internet nerd like me.

I used my GC's to buy an Nike+ exercise thingy & some songs for my Ipod.

So, if you want to try it, here's the link. And don't forget to install the toolbar!!

Oh, and I also subscribe to this blog that posts when bonus points are given on the Swagbucks blog and their facebook page.

Now get to earning me points, people! :)

Bloggity blog blog

2010-05-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

Oh my, how Maison has changed. Still no real clear words but he talks and talks. Sounds like a gremlin. So adorable. Conversations between him and Madeline are like this:

Madeline: Maison, come up here. Let's blah blah blah.
Maison: gremlin talk
Madeline: Okay.

Madeline: Maison, come on! Let's go look for ladybugs!
Maison: gremlin talk
Madeline: MOM! MAISON WANTS HIS SHOES ON!

He does say ball, bug, bus, cheese, that, dog, popsicle and spongebob. But if you're not me you wouldn't understand those either.

His coordination has stepped up. He can run really fast, pedal his tricycle (it takes forever to get around the block because he has to stop to look at all the trucks), and today he conquered all fears of the playground. He was even waving hi to other little little kids. At first I thought he was being mean wiggling his hand right in their faces.

Naps are mostly optional these days. After a few straight days of napping he needs a day awake. And after two days of no naps he NEEDS a nap. It's nice to have more flexibility in our schedule.

Oh, and BYE BYE BINKI. So not a big deal with this kid. He didn't even notice the first night. And then he cried a little bit for a couple of nights. Then it was just a hung head and super pouty points to his mouth for a few nights after that.

We shaved his head and it made his belly look bigger. He outgrew his shoes and flat out REFUSED to wear three new pairs. I of course, want him to wear super hip name-brand shoes that his big cousins would be proud of. Turns out he prefers Dragon light-up sneakers from Wal-mart. Now he's showing everyone, even strangers, his cool light up shoes. Maybe it's the shoes making his belly look bigger.

Too lazy to go to bed

2010-05-13T23:38:00.000-07:00

Weird, but not unusual.
I don't want to turn off the lights, put the dog away, and walk down the hallway
but I'll pay for it tomorrow at 6:30 AM when Madeline wakes me up.
Then my mom will pay for it when I'm late picking her up.
We're going to go for a walk.
Maybe I'll take the tricycle instead of the stroller. But can I push it and walk Sophie at the same time? Hmmm... decisions, decisions.
I think my brain has hit a wall.
I can't think of anything to post on my blog.
Everyday is busy, but there's nothing to post. That can't be.
Madeline is in swim lessons.
And except for her fear of getting water on her eyes, is having lots of fun.
I've bribed her twice with ice cream to keep her going after her teacher dunked her.
He doesn't dunk her anymore.
Maison is becoming very interested in the toilet,
but his fingers got slammed in the seat yesterday and now he's terrified of it.
Last night, all by himself, he tucked his shirt under his chin and walked back to lean his belly on the toilet while he peed in his diaper.
So funny.
One day I was on the phone and by the time I had gotten off, the kids had cleaned up the toy room.
That was REALLY STRANGE. And it hasn't happened since.
I'm trying to teach my body to j.o.g.
It's not a very good student.
Mostly my allergies are killing me with all this wind, so my workouts have been on and off (trying to go the free route with no gym membership).
We got two houses rented out.
Takes some stress off.
Guess I'll suck it up and head to bed now.

Prima Ballerina- the preview

2010-04-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

Really, I think the price we pay for Madeline's ballet class is worth it just to see her dressed all up in her recital costumes. Yesterday was picture day, her recital isn't until June. I didn't order any pictures of her, but she still got to dress up for the group shot.

By Tuesday of this week

2010-04-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

- We harvested our first strawberries. There were 4.

- Maison learned how to get the 4-wheeler to go in turbo mode.

- There were 2 ducks swimming in the pool at the new house. I'm sure they thought it was a pond by the way it looked and smelled.

- Using my mad couponing skills I got 7 boxes of cereal for FREE. I love free.

- Thor's TV stopped working. Thank goodness we bought the warranty (and have more than one tv).

- Madeline surprised me by knowing the name of our street.

- We had an awful parenting moment where Maison fell flat on his face getting out of the car. His finger saved his teeth from being knocked out. The doctor said his fingerprint will grow back.

Hoppity Hop Hop

2010-04-12T20:57:00.000-07:00

One word: CANDY

I can not believe how much candy we ended up with this Easter. What's the point of this holiday again? Oh yeah with us being the non-religious type, the point is CANDY. I guess we got it about right then.

We did dye eggs and left them for Mr. E.B. to hide for us around the house. Madeline was super excited and found most of the eggs with very little help from us. Maison is a late sleeper so he had his own little egg hunt set up for him outside on the patio.

Then we had our awesome spring picnic on a beautiful day at a beautiful park.

More pictures are here.

Gardening al la Stewarts

2010-03-27T22:41:00.000-07:00

Someday I will have a real garden. It's just so strangely satisfying to see food grow on a plant. That is until they all die because this is Las Vegas and sometimes I forget they need water to live. But for now we are very satisfied with our herbs (the basil already looks bad though), and the strawberries (so excited for these), and the tomatoes and jalapenos that are just blooming.

10 things about Madeline

2010-03-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

1. BACK. SEAT. DRIVER.
2. 4 years, 1 month, 1 day; 36 lbs; 3 feet, 5 inches
3. Total Drama Mama
4. Can't stand to see or feel her body hurt in any way (see Drama Mama above).
5. Goes to the end of the driveway by herself to get the mail.
6. Doesn't skip the number 5 when she counts quite as often, and can get most of her teens correct. Except twelveteen. She still has that one.
7. Is usually very nice to her little brother.
8. Her clever joke: "Where do (pencils, grapes, pillows, etc.) come from?"... "Mommy's (or Daddy's or Gma's etc.) BUTT!!"
9. She only wants to watch Spongebob. And yells "Mommy! Spongebob's on!" a few times a day.
10. Wearing her "wobble gobbles":

Brunette

2010-03-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

I went brunette once in high school and it was so horrible that I never went back. Could have been the perm/hair dye combo I was sporting, but I've been very seriously afraid to be anything but blonde ever since. Well, I finally jumped. I'm officially a brunette again. A much better brunette than my high school version (I hope).

Getting our craft on

2010-03-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the blog eighteen25 for this quick, easy and cheap idea. Madeline loves her little basket.

For the record, I really do NOT like to craft with my kiddos. I will be very happy when they can craft by themselves. I know. Bad Mommy.

And yes she is painting a rock in the background. That's about as creative as it gets around here folks.

He's got style

2010-03-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

It's an "I'm on my way to Nascar" sort of style, but I won't argue. My little man picked out a hat the other day. He hates to wear hats and with summer coming up quick I thought maybe he'd wear this one since he picked it out himself. Plus, it's Lightning McQueen for goodness sakes, who WOULDN'T wear a Lightning McQueen hat?

Turns out, he'll wear it all right. Like this:

And like this:

And when he's forced to keep it on his head, he'll wear it like this:

It's a really cool hat. And it'll keep the back of his neck nice and shaded. I can just feel the sunglass/sunblock fights ahead of us. Stubborn little pooper.

And yes, he's scheduled for a haircut very soon.

Goofy Goobers

2010-03-09T16:35:00.000-08:00

I found these in my inbox the other day.

Her very special day

2010-03-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

My baby girl turned four today (well, it was today when I started this, but now it's been a whole nother week). And it was a marvelous birthday if I can say so myself. She would certainly agree.

It started out the same as every day with her crawling into bed with me at 6:30. She took at look at her foot and confirmed that it had indeed grown overnight. Now it's big, and she's a big girl. Soon she'll be big like Ian and Max.

Grandma stopped by on her way to work and gave her a birthday hug and some mini scones. We made homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast, ate and then put on her "4" shirt so she was ready to go when GG came to get her.

They had an appointment at the "beauty shop" for finger and toe nail painting. Pink with sparklies and sparkly flowers. Then they stopped for some park play.

When she got home, Oma, Grandpa Roy, and a giant princess balloon were here waiting for her. By this time she was off-her-rocker excited about her day. After lunch, some errands and a little resting, it was time for the real party to begin.

She had a pink puppy cake with a purple bow, as requested (but when the tail fell off she let out a big, "Now my birthday is ruined!"), and some soda. The only thing missing in her eyes were the balloons. We forgot to get her more balloons to let fly up into the sky.

My baby girl is four. She's in such a hurry to grow up. She didn't understand why she still had to ride in her carseat today. So we weighed her and she was upset that she only weighed 35 pounds when she should weigh 40. And she cried before bed because she's not as tall as Max yet.

We love you baby girl. You are so smart. I love every word that comes out of your mouth. My little 4 going on 9 girl.

It's Sunday, can I hit 10?

2010-02-07T23:00:00.000-08:00

1. Madeline is sick, sick, sick. Sore throat, cough, fever. We've locked her in her room and won't let her near any of us. I hope she's doing ok.

2. That was a joke, ha ha. SHE doesn't think she's sick, so we couldn't keep her away even if we tried. Her throat is really bothering her. At least that's what I'm guessing from her "I just can't take it anymore!" screams. She's extra dramatic since I've been letting her suck on candy canes to help it.

3. We won our Superbowl bets. Go Saints! I only bet a wimpy 20 bucks, but it payed pretty good and Thor's less wimpy than I am, so he won lots. Maybe he'll take me to dinner (hint hint).

4. Since it was SUPPOSED to be a rainy gloomy day today, we had tomato soup with grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches for dinner. If you like tomato soup this recipe from PW's site is soooo good. And super easy too. Certainly not low-fat though.

5. Maison has been practicing his jumps. Yesterday both feet left the ground. Go little dude!

6. We're in the midst of buying a house. A few wrinkles have been ironed out. Now I just hope it will close with no other problems.

7. Madeline needs more entertainment than I can provide. I would like to get her into preschool in the next few months. Although I haven't done any research on the matter, which probably isn't a good thing. Maybe living in an older area has it's perks- like maybe no waiting lists at preschools? Oh, and probably I should get a job.

8. Check out my friend's new photography website and leave her some love on her blog to win some cute stuff. It's really a nice site. And her pictures are BE-A-UTIFUL.

9. My tax papers are nearly ready to turn over to the CPA. This is a serious record- about 6 months earlier than usual. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this staying at home business. Too bad I have to prep for an IRS audit too. Suckies!

10. Eeek, It's 11 o'clock already. Time for bed!

Progress and lack thereof

2010-01-28T21:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, so last new years I made a few easy resolutions. I actually managed to turn about 20% of those resolutions into habit over the past year. Which is good. For me.

I've managed to plan my meals monthly for the entire year. I really like it that way. I use a weekly calendar printout that hangs on my fridge to plan my week and I adjust my monthly food plan slightly if I have to according to the meat I have and our other plans for the week. At the beginning of the year the meal planning was hard because, planning that far ahead, we weren't ever eating what we were particularly craving like we were used to, we were eating what was planned. I was surprised how fast the craving something in particular changed for me. Eating like that was just a habit in itself.

The other thing I've really gotten a handle on is my shopping trips. Costco once a month was my biggest concern and I've got that one down. I only go when the coupon book comes out. And SUPER thanks to my grandparents still watching the kids for me once a week, I have a great grocery shopping schedule too. Every Monday.

The last of my 20% is my ever slightly better handle I have on updating my checkbook and budget worksheets. I actually converted everything to a computer program, which is nice, but it's taking a surprisingly long time for me to be really comfortable with it. I don't like change very much.

Well, that's the 20%.

As for the lack thereof...

The exercise video I bought to assist me with my exercise goal is still unopened. A whole year, and still unopened. I have lost 5 pounds though. But I'm assuming that's from muscle degeneration. My stack of pants that need hemmed is still the same size, and I still don't plan activities for the kids regularly. But I'm ok with all that. I feel pretty good about my 20%.

For this year I'm going to re-focus on opening that video and maybe running in my neighborhood. And the pants. I'd have so much to wear if I'd just get those damn pants hemmed before they all go out of style.

And I've added two habits that need to be formed this year. Firstly, I need to get ready for my day more regularly, in the morning, before the day really starts. Shower, hair, AND makeup if I'm going out of the house. And secondly (thanks Ang) I'll be doing my dishes at night more often than in the morning (when I could be showering) because it DOES make the next day easier (and cleaner). And so far, more than 3 weeks into the new year, my new habits are well on their way to being not so new habits.

On a side note, Thor stole my baby girl this morning to take a quick trip to Colorado and I miss her. She was SO excited to go and as far as I've heard she hasn't cried for her mommy yet at all. I'll have to have a talk with her about that when she gets back.

Getting along

2010-01-17T10:21:00.000-08:00

The kids have been getting along unbelievably well lately. So much so that Madeline has been throwing fits whenever I have to put Maison down for his nap or to sleep at night because she wants to play with him more (unless she's waiting for a naptime popsicle, of course). I love it. Maison is getting old enough to sort of participate in Madeline's games. And Madeline is getting old enough to just pretend he understands even if he doesn't. And they communicate pretty well. Madeline understands Maison's gestures & noises even better than I do sometimes.

Madeline does get frustrated when he decides he doesn't want to play anymore and ignores everything she says, but before she throws a fit she tries being really, really sweet to him to get him back into the game. In her sweetness, she calls him Buddy and Little Buddy. And she sounds like she's calling a puppy. It's so cute.

I hope his "Buddy" nickname doesn't follow him into his school years. I don't think he'll want his friends calling him that.

They were playing together on the Sit-N-Spin here. The picture's freaky, but in person they were spinning and laughing.

Las Vegas fish

2010-01-16T20:18:00.000-08:00

are hecka ugly. But we had some time to kill so I took the kids out to the marina to feed the carp. They loved it. It was a little stressful for me to have them so close to the water, but they mostly sat anyways. After their bags of popcorn were gone (half to the fish and half in their mouths) we took a drive over to the beach. I thought they could run off some energy. There was no one else there and it was a nice but windy day. Most of our time there, Madeline stood/ran/jumped with her arms spread wide enjoying the wind, and Maison wouldn't go near the water so he played in the dirt up closer to the truck.

A haircut

2010-01-14T23:04:00.000-08:00

To stop the tangles.

She loves it. She can't stop looking at herself in the mirror and has taken on brushing it herself every morning.

And I love it too. She's growing up too fast.

Oh yeah, it was CHRISTMAS.

2010-01-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

So I figure that as long as I have my Christmas header still on my page it's not to late to post about our Christmas. Isn't there like a one month rule or something anyways?

Christmas was great fun. Christmas Eve dinner at our house (I forgot to put the noodles in my chicken noodle soup until nearly everyone was served), Christmas brunch at Grandma's (super yummy baked french toast)and dinner at Mom's (that she threw together in about an hour and it was great). It was a whirlwind of gifts and food. The kids got so much stuff that I've just now finally found places for it all. Us adults traded our usual name draw/ Un-secret Santa for a fun Stealing Santa exchange. I ended up with a flashlight. A flashlight so bright it hurts my eyes even looking at it from the side. Thor had wine glasses, then a pocket knife. but ended up with Starbucks instant coffee.

All of my pictures are posted here.

And here are a few pictures from our visit to The Magical Forest. It was so, so, SO cold that night. Madeline had a Blast (with a capital B, you see), but Maison wasn't quite feeling it.

He'll never be one again

2010-01-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

See, even he's upset about it. He wants to stay a baby forever.

Or, maybe not. The real story to that picture is that he kept blowing out the candles as soon as they were lit so we moved the cake away from him until his birthday song was over. Which made him mad. And then he refused to blow out the candles at all. And refused to look at anyone in the room. So Madeline ended up blowing out his candles on his second birthday.

Luckily, for our memory book's sake, Ian relit the candles and convinced him to blow them out after most everybody was gone from the room. His candle blowing puff of breath is lightning fast.

The big hit of the day was the little quad he got from his Grandma and Grandpa. He learned to drive it like a pro in just a few tries and uses it to zoom around the house.

I hope you had a happy birthday little man. Two is going to be a big year. We still haven't heard many words from you (but I do think I've heard you say Spongebob (go figure) and Ian), but you communicate in other ways like a champ. You are very bossy even without words and as long as you don't talk you can still be my little baby boy, which is just fine with me. You love everything that has moving parts and can entertain yourself for hours. Most often you are lining up or pushing your cars and trains, watching their wheels spin, or pushing bigger toys around the house and yard. You like to jump on the trampoline and slide down the slide. You still follow me around like my little ducky rarely letting me close a door with you on the other side. One of your newer things is wanting to be held and carried around for a long time by whoever you have your heart set on at the moment and not letting them put you down without a fight. You copy everything your sister does, which drives her crazy of course. You want to be a big kid and do big kid stuff like use scissors and play video games, and someday you'll be able too. Maybe when you're three like your sister is now.

Your goofy smile and funny games light up our hearts, little guy. We love you to pieces.

Christmas Recital

2009-12-31T23:17:00.000-08:00

Madeline had a little Christmas recital a couple of weeks ago. She amazes me with how well she does on stage. Their dance was maybe a minute long to "Let it Snow". She's the tall girl in the middle:

Filling in the blanks

2009-12-22T23:00:00.000-08:00

In an effort to get 2009 stuff up in 2009, here's a quick rundown of what we've been doing the last couple of months.

Starting new fashion trends...

Practicing fancy new things...

Hosting Thanksgiving for the first time...

Making our Christmas lists...

Decorating our tree, starting a third of the way up...

Posing for pictures, in front of said tree...

Making and eating gingerbread houses...

Putting up the lights (of which a quarter are currently falling down and a half have stopped working completely for some reason)...

And we had a two year birthday, but I'll have to get to that later. Whew.

Polar Express

2009-12-16T20:41:00.000-08:00

We took a trip to Williams, Arizona to ride the Polar Express train. What a blast. This year all of the cousins got to go together and they had so much fun.

The rest of the pictures are here.

They all visited Santa. Madeline was happy to sit on his lap and ask for a Barbie house. I think Santa was very surprised about that since she had NEVER MENTIONED IT BEFORE. Maison was not exactly happy, but since he was on Ian's lap and not Santa's he wasn't crying, which is much more than I expected.

Cutest baby on the toilet award goes to...

2009-12-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

I know. He's not really a baby anymore. But he's my baby, so technically (or not) I can still call him one.

This is pre-potty training. He'll potty as he sits there, but is really there just for the toilet paper he gets to throw in the bowl. And he likes to flush and wave to the tp as it goes down the drain.

Impossible conversation

2009-11-30T23:00:00.000-08:00

Here’s just a piece of part of my day long question/ answer sessions with Madeline.

In the car…

Her: Mom, are we going far, far away?

Me: Well, kinda far, but not like to the beach far.

Her: Oh. Like this far? (her hand trailing her arm from her shoulder down to her wrist)

Me: Uhhmmm, maybe.

Her: Like this far? (her hand trailing from her shoulder down to her elbow crook)

Me: Yeah, like that far.

Her: Can we see Marlee?

Me: No, we’re going to Miles’s and Isabella’s house.

Her: Is it far like Marlee’s house?

Me: Yes, but just not the same direction.

Her: Can we go to Marlee’s house?

Me: Uhhmmm, not right now.

Her: Why?

Me: Because we’re going to a birthday party right now.

Her: Oh. Marlee’s birthday party?

Me: No, remember? It’s Miles’s birthday and his baby sister’s.

Her: Go faster. Why are you not going faster? Because there’s cars?

Me: Yep.

Her: Why are there cars?

Me: I don’t know, there are always cars.

Her: Are we getting closer to Marlee’s house?

Me: No, we’re going to Miles’ house.

Her: Turn here! Turn here!

Me: No, that’s not the way.

Her: But it’s a shorter way!!

Me: No it’s not.

Her: Can I go to sleep?

Me: Sure

Her: Are we getting closer?

Me: yep

Her: Are we by our house?

Me: Nope

Her: Are we far, far away? Like 46 seconds far?

Me: Yep, I think so.

Her: Like 183 seconds?

Me: I don’t know, honey.

Her: Like NRRRRRMMMMMM (car driving sound) far?

And on and on and on and on and on

I love how she’s really trying to figure out the measurements of things, even though she gets her terms all mixed up. She typically measures distance on her arm, quantities on her fingers, days by how many times she has to sleep and sizes by mommy, daddy, baby references. Anyways, between her measurement terms getting mixed up and her throwing whatever number comes into her mind in there, understanding is very difficult on both sides of the conversation.

And, yes, I know this here blog has been sorely neglected. I barely hit 3 posts in November. So sad. My wonderful friend Angela has me reading again and I can not tear myself away from the books. I'm going to have to go cold turkey for a while after my current batch is read just so my bills get paid and dishes get done, and presents wrapped, and cat box cleaned, and children fed, and laundry done, and so on and so on.

Today my ears hurt

2009-11-18T22:27:00.001-08:00

I think today was the loudest day of my life. Both kids were up super early, Maison may be having some sort of teething issue, Madeline is just Madeline. One would scream and the other would scream louder. We almost got kicked out of the library. The security guard asked me if I had a pacifier or bottle that I could give Maison. My ears are still ringing, my shoulders are in knots, tomorrow will be better.

Halloweenie

2009-11-06T15:31:00.000-08:00

We did a few different things this Halloween. It is really the first year that Madeline knew what was going on, picked out her own costume and was excited to wear it (almost every day for a week and a half). On Wednesday we took the kids to Ian & Max’s school for their costume parade and classroom trick or treating. Madeline was so brave walking around the whole playground with the other kids holding Max’s hand. And she got to hone her trick or treating skills.

On Friday the boys and my mom came over to decorate some pumpkins. My kids painted. The rest of us carved, except mom she carved at home. Hers is the fancy cat. Ian’s is the big one. Mine is the small smiley one and Max’s is the other small one. Maison’s painting attention span is short, but very intense.

We had some family over on the big day. Miss Piggy showed up with her Harvard student boyfriend. We also had a hippy and a cat. Next year the rest of us losers are going to dress up. Maison was a train engineer. He wasn't paying attention and I was able to get the bandana on him. We chowed on mini pumpkin pies, mini caramel apples (which turned into apples in watery caramel goo, unfortunately) and chili and cornbread.

We went through a disgusting amount of candy again. I had chocolate withdrawals for a few days after because I didn’t stash enough chocolate and Madeline traded all of hers with the boys for Starbursts. We took the kids up our street and back down, until the boys wanted to leave us in the dust because we were slowing them down, and both of our little ones wanted to be carried everywhere by then anyways. Maison learned right away how to hold his bag out for candy.

Thirty-eight

2009-10-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, that's almost forty!

For his 38th birthday last week, Thor asked for BBQ'd hamburgers, tator tots and a Spongebob cake. So, of course, that's what he got!

Spongebob turned out pretty cute, although he was falling apart by cake cutting time. Too many layers, not enough support. He was in BAD shape by the end of the night. The grand finale was us chanting as he fell over backwards right after Thor blew out his candles.

We had a nice dinner out on the porch and the kids and Thor beat on a pinata for a little bit. Thor doesn't trust his family enough to believe when we scream that he's about to bash in our living room window with the pinata (broom) stick. Thank goodness Gpa interveened and got him turned the right direction.

FALL!!

2009-10-27T21:30:00.001-07:00

Brrrrr....

We're not complaining.

Faster than a speeding bullet!

2009-10-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

Also, likes to shop with her mom...

Nerd rope sword fight with her brother...

And go to birthday parties...

IT'S SUPERGIRL!!

We're getting our money's worth out of her costume this year, that's for sure.

Family Pictures!

2009-10-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

Yay for family picture time! I get so excited to have our pictures done. Then I stress out to no end getting ready for them. This year I scheduled earlier than usual and I decided I’d get ready early so it would be No Stress. Ha! Whatever. I’m a horrible clothing coordinator. Although I think I now know the KEY to making my life easier this time next year. Pick out Maison’s outfit first. Then coordinate the rest of us with him. Little boys just have so little to choose from. And even less fun outfits to choose from. So there’s my tip to myself for next year.

At least our session was short, sweet, and fun. Thanks to the Wonderful Lesley. I think the kids would have jumped in her car and went home with her if she’d have asked them too. We decided to take the pictures in front of a neat looking library, so there wasn’t much walking and there was lots of shade, which was nice since it was still so stinkin’ hot outside.

You can see most of my favorites here at Lesley’s website, but these two are my favorite faves. I love them and they are hanging in my dining room right now looking beautiful!

First Word

2009-10-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

I think we have a first word here. I've been throwing out guesses of what I thought his first word would be for a few months now, as I waited for him to say something. At first I thought it would be "SOPHIE!" because that's what we're always yelling. Madeline's first word was actually "GO!" because we used to tell Grizzly that all the time since he was ALWAYS breathing right in our faces.

Then I thought it would be binki because he loved his binki SOOOOO much there for a while. Which he's gotten over, thank goodness, but he still uses it when he sleeps. And I thought I heard him say banana not too long ago, and I thought that could be it since he eats 3 of them a day and begs for them constantly.

I certainly didn't think it would be what it has ended up being. I wasn't even aware that we said it very much, but I bet between me and Madeline we probably do. Maison's first word, which he's been saying for 3 days now, is "TA-DA!". He says it when he finds something that he's looking for, when his hands come out the end of his sleeves (he still loves the "uh oh, where did your hands go" game) and when he does tricks.

I'm pretty sure he's saying "hot" too, but since it sounds more like "argh" Thor won't confirm that one.

My most handsomest boy is going to be 2 years old in 2 months and 2 days.

And since he was mentioned, ol' Grizzly Bear...

Wednesday

2009-10-14T09:18:00.001-07:00

I'm a mess. I have only one leg shaved, and mascara under my eyes. I can't find the cookbook that has the recipe for tonight's dinner. I can't find the socks that I pulled for Maison to wear today. I have a load of dishes running and another waiting in the sink. I have laundry up the yin yang. And I just finally feel recouperated from my mom's and my yard sale last weekend. It wore me out.

Our yard sale went well, but I still have some stuff I need to try to sell on Craigslist or Ebay.

Both kids have gone up a shoe size recently. And I just noticed that Maison's socks are too small, but his pants are all still too big. He must have short legs or something.

Madeline has started earning a quarter everytime she helps me clean up the toy room. She values quarters more than dollars because she can put them in the vending machine at the grocery store and get a little doggie, or the machine at where we like to eat breakfast and get a "squishy thing".

Thor is on a workout rampage again (his current motivation is a trip he's hoping to take to Florida for a music festival). And we're all trying to eat better. Thor does lots better than I do, but I have been planning healthier dinners lately. I even found a no-meat bean & avocado wrap recipe that Madeline will eat. Not that she'd eat it if it had meat. She really only likes PB&J.

Madeline seems to have stopped eating chicken ever since she saw me picking the meat off of one of those roasted chickens from the store. She said "WHAT'S THAT??" and then "EWWWW, I DON'T LIKE CHICKEN!!".

Thor pushing the kids on the swings-

Gone forever

2009-10-10T21:57:00.001-07:00

We finally threw the binki away. At 22 months, you'd think I was talking about Maison's binki, but we're not that ahead of the game. Madeline, at over 3 1/2 years old finally threw her nasty, broken, loved to the very very very end, binki away. It was a sad night.

It was time and I am sad about it. Sadder than I got when we moved her to her big girl bed. I was completely set against MAKING her give her binki up because it was her lovey, and if it was a teddy bear or something wouldn't it be cruel to just up and throw it away? It just sucked that it was affecting her teeth. I was hoping she'd just forget about it one day. 3 years old was my absolute limit. So at least we made it by 4.

Since about 18 months she's only had it in bed. Before she was 3 we started talking about how it wasn't forever and that it was for babies and la-dee-da. Then we got her some books about it and read them too her. Then I tried bribing her with toys from Target. Finally Thor took over and cut a tiny hole in it and we told her it was broken, and I started taking it out of her mouth at nights when she fell asleep. Then, not too long ago he cut a bigger hole in it.

Finally, the other night, he cut a giant chunk out of it. And when Madeline showed it to me, I thought it had come apart when she slept and it freaked me out. I thought she swallowed it. So I told her that we had to throw it away the next day, which she was fine about (she's thrown it away before, but then gotten it out before bedtime). The next afternoon I reminded her and she tossed it. This time I didn't let her get it back out.

At bedtime, she started panicking and freaking out. I gave myself an hour. If she didn't start to calm down by an hour I'd let her get it (I know, I'm a lost cause). At about an hour, we ate a pumpkin muffin and she calmed down. I let her stay up until 10 to get really tired and then I stayed with her in her bed until she fell asleep.

She woke up once that night (last night) and cried because "her breath felt funny" without her binki. So I layed with her until she fell asleep again. She woke up this morning and was happy to see that her new barking puppy toy that she had picked out long ago was waiting for her on the counter for being such a big girl. And tonight Thor put her to bed without a hitch.

Now, every bit of baby is gone from my little girl. Except for the snuggling, she still loves to snuggle.

Between 3 and 4

2009-10-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

- She still calls the park the "parking lot".
- She calls her toy seal, a "ceiling".
- She still calls daddy, "da-yee".
- She can open the car door and buckle herself into her carseat.
- She can swing herself on the swingset and likes to push Maison too.
- She likes to make her own breakfast- waffles (in the toaster), and yogurt.
- She sleeps in a big girls bed. No more toddler bed.
- Some of her favorite sayings are, "Dang it!", "Don't talk to me!", and "You're killing me!"
- She likes to walk around the backyard holding Maison's hand.

- She rides a big girl's bike.
- Her favorite music is a toss-up between Elmo and house/dance ("fun") music.
- She loves peanut butter n jelly and ham n cheese sandwiches.
- She has started to drink milk again.
- She can take off her own jammies.
- She is the queen of goofy faces.

- She does not like her hair washed because water gets in her ears and eyes.
- She can use safety scissors.
- She can play computer games all by herself.
- She took it upon herself to develop a Maison-proofing system for my bathroom vanity using her stretchy headbands. (Thank you Darling)
- She loves Spongebob and Animal Planet- especially shows that are too graphic for my liking.
- She loves her grandma's dog, but our poor Sophie bugs the heck out of her.
- She calls most of the dinners I serve "disgusting".
- Once she swished all of her (kid's less sugar) yogurt around in her mouth and then spit it back into her bowl to make it taste better.
- She's a bag full of sugar, and a really big bowl full of spice.

Sandy Eggos

2009-09-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

We were able to escape to San Diego again this year. Oh how I love that place. We mostly did the usual stuff, but this time we did a day at Sea World and spent a little bit of time down where the rides and games are on the boardwalk.

To my dismay, two days before we left our Denali had to go into the shop, so the kids and I crowded into my mom's and my grandparent's vehicles, and Thor drove down a couple of days later since he had to work anyways.

Maison was a brave boy and touched the sand and the water. Madeline was brave too, until a wave knocked me over while I was holding her, then she was only brave with her dad.

Here are a few pics of our trip, the rest are in my Flikr

On my 31st birthday

2009-09-22T23:00:00.000-07:00

I donned my not so itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini and shoved myself into a wetsuit to take a surfing lesson. And now, let me tell ya, it kicked my butt. First of all, I'm not a huge fan of swimming in cold salty water (I'm not a fan of swimming in cold unsalty water, either). And that water was killer in my eyes, up my nose and in my mouth. But it was fun. I like a challenge. I just need to work out for a year before I think about trying it again. Maybe then I won't have to cut my lesson short because I don't have the stamina to get the board back out past the smallish waves to where the instructor is waiting for me. And maybe then I won't be so mortified when I find out I have to PEEL the wetsuit off, outside, next to a patio bar with a bunch of people sitting right there.

This is what Thor must have looked like most of the time, feeling my pain as I crashed off the board.

and here's what it looks like when I crash off the board-

But I did get up. Quite a few times. Not on any big waves, mind you, but I did stand on the board, and coast towards the shore. So, I guess it was more like mini-surfing.

Max's Birthday

2009-09-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

My youngest nephew turned 9 a couple of weeks ago. Holy guacamole. He has eyelashes to die for and a great laugh. He got the standard cake/swimming/pinata summer birthday shindig, which the kids all love. Madeline thinks all birthdays are supposed to have a pinata, even her grandma's. I made him a dirtbike cake (which was cute AND yummy, a birthday miracle!) since he's an awesome dirtbike rider and he got some money, giftcards and tiny remote control cars for gifts.

Playing in the dirt

2009-09-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sure this is a "you had to be there" story, but here it is all the same.

On one of our days in Utah, we decided to go out as a group on a ride up a mountain trail while we had a couple of machines rented. Thor stayed at the campsite with Maison and the rest of us went out- Dad in the ranger with Madeline and my nephews, Mom on the 4-wheeler, and me on the dirt bike. We were going up the hill and back. Well, a wrong turn, and another wrong turn, turned our little ride on the easy trail into a 2 hour trek on not so easy trails.

We had no map, no water, no cell phones. After awhile, I knew we were in trouble when my dad took us out onto a main, main road, which we weren’t allowed to be on. And we knew dad was really lost when he pulled into a Fire Station to ask directions. Too bad the station was closed. At one stop my mom told me we were on the other side of the mountain kinda by this town that I knew was far, far away. I started to get a little bit panicky because I knew Thor was back at the campsite with Maison wondering where his whole family had gone. So, we headed back out onto this road, which just so happened to be on the route of a bicycle race. As the bicyclists were huffing and puffing up this gigantic hill, here we all come buzzing along side them in our off-road vehicles. By this time, I had taken over the Ranger with the kids and Dad had jumped on the bike, and as we were slowly buzzing by these hard working bike riders in their spandex, the kids were laughing and waving at them. And some of them actually took their energy to wave back. Oh. My. God. Our ridiculousness was cracking me up. I could not stop laughing and my mom was doing the same behind me on the 4-wheeler. The kids, of course, thought the situation was totally normal.

We ended up cruising through this beautiful area with beautiful houses where we saw deer in someone's front yard. We eventually got back on an offroad trail and dad found someone with a map and figured out how to get back. By the time we got back, I was holding poor Madeline's head up in this huge football-like helmet with my one arm while I drove with the other. She somehow managed to fall asleep sitting up in an offroad vehicle while driving through the forest.

In the end we decided we had a blast. And that if we wouldn't have gotten lost we would have spent most the day trying to decide who was going to go where with who and on what.

Ahhh, memories.

Trip highlights with a zillion pictures

2009-09-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

This was Thor’s first time towing a trailer and thankfully it went really well. Especially for how far we towed it. Once, on the way home, a gust of wind caught it unexpectedly, but that was the only scary thing that happened.

The first night that we stayed in the camper, the kids went a little cooky when the beds were pulled out. I tried to get a picture of them in their undies sitting nicely on the bed together, but by the time I got my camera they had turned into monkeys.

Our first night in Colorado we parked the trailer at Thor’s parents’ restaurant. We were a day early and the campground didn’t have any openings. We ate a lot of our meals at the restaurant over the next week and we discovered that Maison LOVES green chili (but try to give that kid a bite of chocolate cake and he just shakes his head, “no.”)

When we made it to the campground where we had reservations for the next 6 nights, up in the beautiful mountains of Colorado, it was not at all what we expected. All dirt, no trees, no fire pit, and our spot was right on the highway next to the large sign that lit up our trailer at night. Whoa, was Thor mad.

But we made the best of it for a night and found a better, prettier place for the rest of the nights where we felt like we were actually in a campground and not at a truck stop .

We had a really great time visiting and eating and shopping with Thor’s family. We got to see a semi-truck dumping asphalt tip over on its side in the restaurant parking lot, which was exciting. The kids got big kid bikes and I think Madeline’s vocabulary (and attitude) expanded just by her thinking she was a big girl with her big bike. And Maison put a lot of miles on his pink doll stroller.

We even took a trip into Denver to the zoo, which if anyone’s wondering, is a great zoo. Nearly as nice as the San Diego Zoo, but smaller and doable in a few hours, all for the price our tiny zoo in Las Vegas. Elephants, giraffes, lions, and a pig faced turtle. Everything we look for in a zoo. Madeline hurt her foot just before we went, and since she refused to walk we rented her a stroller. Which Maison decided to push. And Thor or I ended up pushing Maison’s empty stroller.

We left Colorado as early as we could on Thursday and drove 10 hours straight through to Duck Creek for a few fun days of playing in the dirt.

Dirt like I've never seen

2009-08-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

We've survived our 11 day camping extravaganza to Colorado and back. And I have a ton of pictures to share, but I'll start at the end of our trip with these from when we met my parents and nephews up in Utah for a few days on our way home. The mountain must have been in some serious need for rain. The dirt was like powder. Everytime I looked at the kids I would end up singing "1 little, 2 little, 3 little Indians..." in my head because they were covered from head to toe in a reddish dirt. Even us adults looked like we had extra dark tans (wish I could have kept mine- ha!).

What we've been up to

2009-08-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

- We took another trip up to Duck Creek. Just me and the kids. Stayed with my parents for 3 nights in the motorhome and didn't want to come back to the HEAT. I got my dirtbike on and only almost crashed into a tree three times. They were small trees. I had a helment on, I would have been ok. Madeline rode a 4 wheeler (we rented), a dirtbike (very slowly) and a horse on this trip. The kids rode a 2-wheel bike for the first time thanks to a nice camp neighbor. We saw a bazillion sheep trying to cross the highway and tried to recreate, with not as much luck as we had hoped for, Unruh dutch oven potatoes.

- I took the kids to the library for the first time. We were there right when storytime started so we decided to check it out. Madeline really liked it, although she didn't participate much. Maison ran around the room like a mad man and kept trying to climb into someone else's stroller. Madeline's first library rentals were 2 dinosaur books and the Disney Dinosaur movie.

- Ian spent a couple of days with us last week. On one we went to the mall. I'm trying to decide what we should wear for family pictures in advance this year, instead of waiting until the last minute. But I really have no idea. The second day we went to the Children's Museum. The kids had a blast. Again, Maison ran around like a mad man. The kid is hard to keep track of. He'll disappear around a corner in a flash.

- This weekend was really low key. Saturday Thor worked outside and I worked inside. We (Thor and I) had chicken and broccoli for dinner and ate outside because the weather was pretty dang nice. Then I took the kids to my moms for some swimming, and popcorn after Madeline FINALLY ate her chicken and broccoli. I forgot to feed Maison (he won't eat chicken or broccoli) so he had popcorn for dinner. Sunday we went to breakfast, then Madeline and I went to lunch with my mom and took a field trip to Target where we found lots of stuff we didn't need.

- Today Max spent the day with us. We tried to go to the park, but it was too hot and the kids wanted to go back home. Max tried out a couple of Thor's Playstation 3 games and the kids played in the backyard once it got shaded. Thor came home early and I got some grocery shopping done. I made pizza for dinner, pepperoni and red onion, then went back out to finish my shopping while the kids were in their bath. Summer nights are so nice.

Another lens givaway alert!

2009-08-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

Go here- it ends friday evening!

Ian's skateboard cake, take 2

2009-08-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

Ian was just a few months old when Thor and I started dating. Now he's 11 years old. 11 years! Holy cow.

Ian liked his last year's birthday cake enough to ask for a similar one for this year. He said he wanted it exactly like it was last year with donut wheels and everything. But he wanted Blind on it instead of DC. I took a design off the skateboard website and frozen buttercream transfered it. It ended up looking much better than it tasted. I picked a BAD cake/frosting combination. Add to that lots of black food coloring and it was barely edible. Max actually gagged on the frosting a little bit. But I'll just blame that on him being choked up about a sad lizard issue just a few minutes before. Sorry Ian (and everyone else)! At least it looked cool. That's all that really matters anyways, right?

His party ended up being 9 days before his actual birthday because my parents had a trip planned. So, lucky guy, got some of his presents early. Giftcards, really cool dirt bike riding gear, and a model car kit, from what I remember. Here are a few pictures from his party.

Happy birthday Ian. Now stop growing please. Love, Auntie Jessica.

Skipping town

2009-07-27T23:07:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to be taking the kids up to Duck Creek for a few days this week. We need to get out of this HEAT. Whew. My parents are up there in their motorhome and we're going to try to motorhome out with them. Yikes! It might be a shorter trip than I'm hoping for. Thor's working so we're leaving his butt behind! Sorry honey.

Here are some pics of the trip we took up there a few weeks ago. The boys were with us then and we stayed in a hotel. With lots of stairs. That Maison loved to climb. Madeline was diggin' nature. Maison was not. But he did dig in the dirt a little and throw some rocks. Madeline got to ride a horse with me and when we were riding the guide looked back at us and said, "Madeline I don't think your smile could get any bigger!".

She's been singing jingle bells lately

2009-07-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way
so much fun do what's right
a hohoho hoho

a hohoho hohoho ho ho ho hoho
a hohoho a hohoho aho hohohoho
ho!

I laugh and ruin everything

2009-07-21T22:44:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to remember to ask Madeline to help me clean up her messes. I've been really bad so far and used to let the kids go hog wild and I'd clean up while they were both napping. I liked it that way. No fights and I like to piddle and straighten anyways. But now with Madeline not napping, I need to find a new routine.

So today, I had moved my huge and EXTREMELY heavy mattress off my bed and moved the box springs so I could vacuum up the cat nastiness from underneath. While I did that, the kids got into the hall closet and took out all 12 rolls of paper towels, 3 packages of toilet paper, and whatever diapers, tin foil, Brita filters, and packages of baby wipes I had in there. They built a "bathroom" within the mattress frame so Madeline could go (pretend, thank goodness) pee. They were playing together and keeping busy so I left them alone.

As I made the bed back, Madeline was supposed to put all of the closet stuff back over by the closet, 1 hallway width away. After each roll of paper towels she said, "ugggghhh, I had a heart attack!", by the time she got to the toilet paper it was, "oh my gosh, you're killing me!", after the toilet paper she walked in all hunched over with her hands practically dragging on the floor talking about the heart attack again. That's when I couldn't hold my laugh back any longer. So then, of course, she wouldn't do anything else except walk around "exhausted" with her head hung low and her fingers nearly dragging the floor. I ended up cleaning the rest of the mess. She knows how to play me, that's for sure.

Super Grumpy Butt

2009-07-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

That's me. Super Grumpy Butt. I think it's the heat. Almost like cabin fever or something. Stuck in the house. Not that I usually leave all that often anyways, but we could at least go outside if we wanted too. Or I could at least send the kids outside to get a breather. And when we do leave the house it takes extra effort because of the heat. And the kids just don't move fast enough for me, of course (because I'm Super Grumpy Butt).

The kids have been extra fiesty the last few days, too. Madeline is requiring constant attention and has hit a new level of brattiness. She is officially nap-less. Although every few days she has a complete meltdown and passes out in my bed at about 4 in the afternoon. Some days she does good playing in her room by herself for awhile to take a break, but I'm not pressing that too hard. This is adding to my grumpiness. I can't figure out how to function without my mid-day-kid-break. It's when I would "hhhhmmmmmmm", relax my shoulders, and get things done.

Tomorrow will be better. They go to my grandparents' house for the morning so I can get my shopping done without lugging them along. It always helps my week go smoother. Now I have to go make my lists and check my coupons...